Canadian 10th Grader Discovers Radioactive Imported Seafood Long After Government Stopped Testing

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Radioactive seafood isn’t foreign to Canadian grocery stores, but we have no research and development professionals to thank for that information—just a 10th grader from Alberta.

Bronwyn Delacruz of Grande Prairie Composite High School in Alberta made her discovery with the help of a $600 Geiger counter her father purchased and the need to complete a science project. She told Metro Canada that she decided to test the radioactivity of seafood—mostly seaweed—because she was shocked to learn that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stopped testing imported foods in that manner the year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

“Some of the kelp that I found was higher than what the International Atomic Energy Agency sets as radioactive contamination, which is 1,450 counts over a 10-minute period,” she said. “Some of my samples came up as 1,700 or 1,800.”

Since the Canadian stopped testing seafood for radiation, an Alberta teenager took matters into her own hands. Photo credit: AP / Ahn Young-joon

According to the Daily Herald Tribune, Bronwyn tested more than 300 seaweed samples, including 15 brands exported from Japan, China, California, Washington, New Brunswick and British Columbia. Her work earned her gold honors at a regional science fair in Peace River, Alberta. In May, she will compete nationally in Ontario.

“I’m kind of concerned that this is landing in our grocery stores and that if you aren’t measuring it, you could just be eating this and bringing home to your family,” Bronwyn said.

The CFIA’s website says that it found more than 200 seafood samples in 2011 and 2012 that were “found to be below Health Canada’s actionable levels for radioactivity.” That was enough to lift the country’s enhanced import controls.

“No additional testing is planned,” the site reads.

According to Miles O’Brien, it’s the same scenario in the U.S. One of his recent PBS reports revealed that scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute were turned down after requesting minimal federal support by five agencies. There are no federal agencies conducting comprehensive, on-the-ground analyses of how much Fukushima radiation has made its way into the air and oceans of the U.S.

In October, Dr. David Suzuki predicted that it would take three years from the time of the incident for the radiation plume to reach the West Coast. That would have been in the past month. That concept wasn’t lost on young Bronwyn.

“The way the currents and the radiation would arrive in Canada, it wouldn’t arrive until now, about 2014 or 2013,” she said.

In 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137, the radioactive form of cesium, was found in various seafood products that were imported from Japan, including:

• 73 percent of the mackerel

• 91 percent of the halibut

• 92 percent of the sardines

• 93 percent of the tuna and eel

• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies

• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

“Any amount of leaked radiation is harmful to the planet and the health of all species, including humans,” Suzuki wrote. “A major release of radioactivity, such as that from Fukushima, is a huge concern, with unknowns remaining around long-term health risks such as cancers.”

Comments

ConcernedCanadian

This was a study only looking at edible seaweed, if you step back and think about how fish bioconcentrate the algae and seaweed they consume then wouldn’t that imply that the fish we are buying is likely contaminated as well?

JRT256

What do you mean by contaminated? The fish apparently wasn’t tested for Cesium-134 so we don’t know if any of the radioactive Cesium came from Fukushima. If the Cesium-137 came from nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s would you worry about that? We don’t even know what was in the seaweed because the young scientist didn’t have a sample tested with a GC/MS.

Thomas DeSoto

This has been going on for three years, These toxins reached Canada on March 17th 2011, it’s been concentrating along the entire coast of Northern America for over two years now, negatively effecting millions of people and tainting all fish from Alaska to Baja. Rubios, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr, McDonald’s including every grocery store and every Fish restaurant has been selling radioactive contaminated fish products to millions of people for over two years now. No one seems to care???

stephen

Thomas can you substantiate that?

or is it just a speculation?

Kevin Schmidt

Can you substantiate the speculation that claims fish is not contaminated with radiation?

Duncan Bray

read the article

Duncan Bray

eh? … I happened to look at this again … my post is NOT ‘2 months old’ … it’s not even 24 hours old … something is completely messed up with this … so, unless they actually do something to fix it, I suggest you ignore the dates posted

JRT256

How do we know where this Cesium-137 came from. There is naturally occurring Cesium-137 in the Oceans and a considerable amount in the Pacific leftover from the nuclear bomb tests.

sustainableprosperity

Bro I just told a loved one living on the BC coast about this story and she didn’t care….? I don’t know what’s wrong with people.

On April 4th, we will launch the first phase of the Worldwide Wave of Action by gathering at Zuccotti Park and former occupation sites throughout the world to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At 6:05pm CT, the time of his assassination, we will host vigil ceremonies and resurrect his spirit of nonviolent direct action.

People with opinions across the political spectrum are invited to unite and find common ground against corruption. We will overcome divide and conquer propaganda by forming communities of support and compassion. Together we will fight for freedom and begin engaging in a relentless campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience. People will pledge to take part in whatever tactics they are interested in throughout a sustained three-month cycle.

I was trying to look up on this further, and apparently irradiation of food is a legal procedure conducted by some companies to “preserve” and make food safer? I wouldn’t know the science behind this to make a real statement about it… but I thought I’d share.

Thanks Eco Watch for informing the public about the radio active contaminated fish in the grocer shops every body should buy a radio active counter and test food in the super markets world wide well done.

pepsi pete

we the people are braindead nobody cares as long as there is money.

stephen

The substantiate that referred more to, “tainting all fish from Alaska to Baja. Rubios, Jack in the Box, Carl’s
Jr, McDonald’s including every grocery store and every Fish restaurant
has been selling radioactive contaminated fish products”… I want to know where is the source for this comment? It is alleged but is it credible evidence based on more than one source?

JRT256

AFAIK, it takes a GC/MS to find this Cesium-137 in the fish. They don’t glow in the dark or show up on a radiation meter.

frigate

If everyone voted for the Greens, these things could be fixed. But until everyone does it, we’re stuck with voting for Democrats who get their funding from the same corporations that are poisoning us.

JRT256

You don’t say what size of a sample of seaweed was tested. Obviously, this will affect the results. I hope that the young scientists understood this.

While the Cesium-137 in fish is dangerous in sufficiently large amounts. It would have to also have Cesium-134 to show that it came from Fukushima. Otherwise it is just the radionuclides from natural levels and the nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.

We don’t even know if this geiger counter was properly calibrated…which is pertinent to this kind lf research. It has to be done properlyby professionals. You can’t just DIY as a 10th grader.

We also don’t know the sample size, as someone else has pointed out.

Rick Sanders

The hysteria against nuclear power is run by the likes of the World Wildlife Fund, the followers of Zeus against Prometheus. You should take the time to read up on the massive documentation on radiation hormesis, or the benefits of low level radiation. Some of you may know that without minute quantities of radioactivity in your body, you would not live very well, if at all.